Man holding replica of rifle shot by SWAT member

Jason Tucker was shot twice and transported with non-life-threatening injuries to a local hospital.

April 14, 2010|By Anika Myers Palm, Orlando Sentinel

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story indicated that there was a firearm on the nightstand. The item on the nightstand was a replica of a firearm.

DELTONA — A man has been hospitalized after he was shot twice by a veteran member of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office as the agency's SWAT team executed a search warrant.

Jason Tucker, who was airlifted with non-life-threatening injuries to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, was holding what Sgt. Vidal Mejias thought was a rifle when Mejias burst into a bedroom in a house on Courtland Boulevard.

That's when Mejias fired twice at 31-year-old Tucker, who, officials later learned, was holding a replica of a rifle.

Another replica of a firearm was sitting on a nearby nightstand, according to Gary Davidson, a spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.

Tucker will be charged by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of marijuana under 20 grams, and possession of drug paraphernalia, authorities said.

The search turned up a misdemeanor amount of marijuana, small plastic bags typically used for packaging drugs for sale, scales with cocaine residue on them, other drug paraphernalia with cocaine residue on them, and two prescription pills, authorities said.

Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said Mejias, 35, who has worked for the agency for 15 years, was placed on administrative leave with pay — a routine procedural move after officer-involved shootings.

Mejias did the right thing when he saw what he thought to be a rifle in Tucker's hands, Johnson said.

"You don't have time to walk over and tap on it to find out if it's real or not," he explained.

The shooting happened at 6:17 a.m. at a home in the 2000 block of Courtland Blvd., according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

Earlier, members of the SWAT team arrived at the house to execute a search warrant for narcotics, Davidson said.

Members of the team announced they were going to enter the house about 20 times before they forced their way in, Johnson said.

In addition, a deputy used a patrol vehicle's public-address system to announce that authorities had arrived with a search warrant and were going to enter, Johnson said.

When no one inside the house responded, SWAT team members forced their way in. The team members took every precaution because a preliminary investigation led the agency to think the operation "did score high on our scale for potential for violence," said Johnson.

Tucker's past includes charges of battery, aggravated assault on a law-enforcement officer and armed carjacking, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. He was arrested in March on charges of possessing a crack pipe after he was stopped while driving recklessly at a high speed, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Mejias was the first one to go in the bedroom, where Tucker was holding the "realistic'' replica of a rifle, the Sheriff's Office said.

Also in the home when the SWAT team arrived were another man, a woman and a 1-year-old boy, Davidson said. A child's plastic slide set and a black stroller were in the front yard.

Jarvis Carr, 31, and Judy Tucker, 29, each were charged with possession of schedule II narcotics, possession of marijuana under 20 grams, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Authorities said today's incident was the first Volusia County deputy-involved shooting since December 2007.

Tim Webb, who lives across the street from the home where Tucker was shot, said he didn't hear anything outside his home, and only noticed that something was happening when he woke up about 6:30 a.m. and saw the flashing blue lights of Sheriff's Office vehicles.

Webb said he had spoken a few times to the residents of the home, whom he thought to be a woman and her husband and baby, and the woman's brother.

"They seemed like decent people," said Webb. "I see them get up and go to work, so to see all this happen was a bit of a shock."

However, another neighbor said he wasn't surprised by the morning's events.

Caleb Cruz, 14, and his mother, Roseanna, noticed the sheriff's office cars when they looked outside the window Wednesday morning to find out why their dog kept barking. Caleb, who is homeschooled, said his quiet neighborhood had become "a drug area" in the past two years.